Lagos: Nigeria's second stock exchange market was switched on Monday in Abuja for a trial run but no company was listed at its inauguration, an official at the event told AFP on Tuesday. The 500 naira (4.2 million dollars) automated globalised trading system was used for mock trading in shares on Monday, the official said. Nigeria already has one stock exchange in Lagos, the country's economic capital.
The chairman of the implementation committee of the Abuja stock exchange, Shamsideen Usman, said that the new market would promote transparency and conform with international standards.
He also said that the Abuja stock exchange would boost the Nigerian capital market.
The idea of setting up multiple stock exchanges in Nigeria dates back to 1975, when the federal government observed certain inadequacies in the country's capital market, which at that time was almost two decades old.
Some of the problems included the paucity of tradable instruments, lack of transparency and other technical inefficiencies.
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